Pesticide Use and Sales in SK

The number of registrants reporting increased from 61% ( 2007) to 70% (2008).

Not all products reported could be used in the calculations.Of the remaining 2105 products, the overall pesticide sales in Canada for 2008 were 87 522 435 kg a.i.(active ingredient).

The top ten active ingredients made up 61 836 154 kg a.i.or 71% of the total (Table 3).

4.4 % sales were of Domestic sector products

no provincial data in the report.

Further inquiry on provincial sales data indicates that provincial sales data are proprietory and therefore secret. This is ludicrous in view that at least Quebec, Ontario and Alberta make their pesticide sales data public, and I had no toruble obtaining them from SK fro 2001-03.

Pesticide Sales in Saskatchewan 2001-03 with associated health effects. These are the only 3 years for which data are available. See the bottom of the table for legend. The health effects have been taken from the PANNA pesticide data base. Question marksfor health effects mostly indicate a lack of data in the area. These sales data are incomplete, with a maximum of 75% commercial vendors reporting. SK has no data whatsoever on domestic sales. Products brought in from the U.S. by anyone else other than a commercial vendor are also unaccounted for.

California Department of Pesticide Regulation Report Raises Concerns Over Increased Pesticide Use(Beyond Pesticides, May 21, 2015) The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) published its Annual Pesticide Use Report last week, which finds that overall pesticide use for agricultural purposes has increased by 3.7 percent between 2012 and 2013. In the meantime, where are decent pesticide use data for Canada and Saskatchewan? Saskatchewan collected data for a few years but did not have the manpower to enter them. Then the Pest Management Registration Agency (PMRA) said they would publish an annual report, the first published in 2012 for the year 2007-8, 5 years after actual use, compared to 1 1/2 year for California. The report was very low on information for individual active ingredients used and did not give a breakdown by province. On further inquiry, I was told that use by province is secret and cannot be disclosed. The Canadian public is stilll in the dark regarding pesticide used where they live.

Pesticides don't just disappear from the environment or our bodies. They break down into other products, some being more toxic, some less, and many we know nothing about. (see What Happens When Pesticides Are Degraded? A Guide to Terms and Processes (JPR/Volume 9, No. 4, Winter 1989/1990, p. 25)) Some of the main breakdown products are included on this table with the known and unknown health effects.

The pesticide industry sales figures given the the Canadian Senate in 2000 indicate the use of over 17 million kg pesticides/year in SK and they keep reporting increasing sales.

Sask Agriculture/crops links to the Guide to Crop Protection updated annually with all the pesticides licenced for SK crops.